andym Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 I was wondering as i was drooling over the new skins coming along as to exactly what it entails.What do you need (software wise) to accomplish the task and just HOW are skins made?I would love to have a go but it seems awefully complicated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH_Lieste Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Skinning from scratch can be complicated…However with the new templates that Deja has released, producing an attractive skin that is a variation on the basic one is fairly simple.You will need:One computer.A mouse (computer type, but if you want a pet one as well feel free).An empty yoghurt pot and some sticky back plastic…<sounds of a struggle>Please wait while normal service is restored.Ok…You will need:One computer An image editing program - GIMP is possible, but I much prefer Photoshop. Some reference materials, or imagination.The correct template for your vehicle of choice.Basic editing can be as simple as flood filling the new camouflage colour onto the appropriate layer(s).You can get highly carried away if you start reworking all the panels, shading etc at higher resolutions, but this isn't really necessary for your first skins. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 Ok,so simply put,you use Photoshop or other programme to fill in a vehicle template?A bit like a grown up colouring book? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hackworth Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 yea, i wish it were always that easy, but yes, with Deja's templates, it's almost like a coloring book. only dont hand it to your kid unless you want it ruined use layers, work in a higher resolution - 2048 for instance - and save, save, save. save your template, then save it as a different name, if you need to to test it. so you dont ruin your template by accidentally collapsing the layers during the save. (watch, you'll do it once... at least). i've made some images from scratch and always save them prior to shrinking them down to fit on skins. this way you always have a high resolution backup. you can always decrease the size and resolution of an image, but you can't increase it later and retrieve what detail is lost by descreasing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH_Lieste Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 With a decent template, yes that is pretty much it - a bit of trial and error and some experience to get something that looks nice, but simple to get something.The real artistry comes when the has complex camouflage patterns that run across several distinct parts, getting these to line up can be interesting. (Of course I'm speaking from experience of skinning aircraft (Morane Saulnier 'N' type from scratch, and a few Bf-109 skins with personal markings as repaints), rather than our tanks. I have played about a bit with the 2.460 vehicles' templates, and I might be tempted to throw something together if I run out of things to test. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Colossus Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 One of the difficult things you can encounter are parts in the skin that are recycled- these components might be in different areas, but share the same texture. So your details or camo scheme has to be prepared to deal with that, or it can look broken, uneven, or strangely repetitive. You can't have road wheels with alternating or different colors, as an easy example. You'll have to plan carefully by painting BMP troop exit doors- the doors are mirror reflections of the same texture, so any paint that's applied to the texture will represent a mirror image for both doors, or, won't match up with any continuous pattern that overlaps the doors and is part of the overall frame. It gets really interesting when you're talking about the side aspects of the BMP or BRDM vehicles. Parts of the side aspects are recycled, parts of them aren't- you can spend a lot of time experimenting to get patterns to align properly, since painting one surface for different areas causes local problems when applied to another. You may think you have a good idea for a camo pattern, but you'll see how they work in practice- in this respect, I've found the T-72 skin to be among the least painful to work with. But it can take a lot of planning and thinking about how it will work rather than simply jumping into it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOAMarksman Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Do you work on the skin as a BMP file then save it or alter it to a .dds file? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH_Lieste Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Usually as a layered format - photoshop, tiff or equivalent, and saving a flattened copy as a .dds for testing/use. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOAMarksman Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Usually as a layered format - photoshop, tiff or equivalent, and saving a flattened copy as a .dds for testing/use. Thanks again for the help GH and everyone who posted all the advice in here. With your info, and using the Leo2A6 Bundeswehr put together by FRiTZ, the Canadian Leo 2A5 put together by Boomer, and the English Leo2 Internal Panels by Alan323; I was able to patch together a Canadian Leo2A6M to use. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted May 25, 2009 Author Share Posted May 25, 2009 Excuse the daft question,but the skins in the download pages in the majority are all .bmp files and as such are not compatable with the new upgrade.So to enable to be used do they need to be changed into a .dds format or is there more to it than that?I only ask as i love the skins with the foilage on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH_Lieste Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 The conversion is painless, being just resaving the file in the DX .dds format.There might be some files where this doesn't give expected results (I noticed that the high res Leopard interiors worked nicely in the package with the .bmp files, but that the translations/other versions which had the files in .dds had some problems with button lights and the range display). This is probably a settings issue on the save file dialogue but I haven't got around to investigating what is different yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
congo Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Excuse the daft question,but the skins in the download pages in the majority are all .bmp files and as such are not compatable with the new upgrade.So to enable to be used do they need to be changed into a .dds format or is there more to it than that?I only ask as i love the skins with the foilage on.Not unless things have changed from previous versions both bmp,s and dds files should be recognized by the sim but the dds files translate into quicker load times because of their size in relation to the bmp. Just remember if you work with any of the dds files that have an alpha layer, to save as such, you will not need to worry as long as your are working with vehicle skins. If you start working with trees,bushes,roads etc. They have an alpha. Turn on the channels palette in your photo editing program and you will see what I mean. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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